parents

Just as college-going high school seniors have caught up on their sleep over the holidays, they face another round of application deadlines — this time for scholarships and financial aid.

Fortunately, they and their families don’t have to figure it all out on their own. Next Tuesday evening (Jan. 13) at Oakland Technical High School is the first of at least 11 multilingual Cash for College workshops (put on by the California Student Aid Commission) to take place across the city before the March 2 federal financial aid deadline. You can find the workshop locations and times here.

Way back in April 2007, I had the pleasure of observing the first of many sessions about overcrowding in a severely undercrowded district. It was on a Sunday afternoon at Hillcrest Elementary School, and boy was it intense.

Tonight, literally more than 30 meetings later, the board voted to send all Hillcrest-area kids for whom there’s no space to nearby Kaiser Elementary, a high-performing arts magnet school. They also agreed to eventually expand capacity at the also crowded Montclair Elementary School by up to 100 more students, which the school’s faculty council apparently opposes. No boundary lines changed.

Wondering if the gifts you’ve bought this year are free of lead and other hazardous elements? The Center for Environmental Health is doing free and instant ”Safe Santa” tests in Oakland and Berkeley this week and next.

If you’re at all curious about what their handy “x-ray fluorescence analyzers” might detect, you can find locations and dates here.

But if lawmakers don’t work out California’s budget problems in short order, the state could run out of money as soon as February – and some are speculating about the possibility of closing public schools weeks early.

Last week, a reporter from our sister paper in Vallejo reported that California school officials have discussed the possibility of that “doomsday scenario.” In the story, Hilary McLean, the press secretary for State Superintendent Jack O’Connell, confirmed that it had, indeed, been “bandied about.”

North Oakland Community Charter School parents might be wondering why, all of a sudden, their kids are bugging them to use compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), to eat one less pound of beef per week, or to take shorter showers.

The Oakland charter school is one of more than 20 schools to join the Cool the Earth initiative. Started in 2007 by Marin County parents, the program educates kids (grades K-8) about global warming and gives them “action coupons” for saving water, paper, electricity and gas at home.

Cool the Earth is run by a small team of parents and/or other volunteers at each school Continue Reading →

The East Bay Express had an interesting story this week on Cleveland Elementary. Under the leadership of Principal Mia Settles, the diverse school near Lake Merritt has broken down language barriers and encouraged various forms of parent involvement – from stapling papers to picketing the district’s administrative offices because of overcrowding.

Staff proposals for addressing overcrowding at Hillcrest and other popular elementary schools have been swinging back and forth in recent months, as if there were some sort of behind-the-scenes tug of war on Second Avenue — which, of course, is entirely possible.

If the latest set of staff recommendations to the Special Committee on School Admissions, Attendance & Boundaries holds its position, Hillcrest will keep its middle school — and its attendance boundaries — intact. And Montclair, which has a crowding problem of its own, would eventually expand.